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New 'Gone with the Wind' stage adaptation coming in 2013

March 12, 2012 | 7:00
am

Stage versions of Margaret Mitchell's "Gone with the Wind" seem to be as cursed as the 1939 movie was successful. Will the third time be a charm?

A new stage version of "Gone with the Wind" is scheduled to have its world premiere in Canada in 2013. Adapted by actress and playwright Niki Landau, the drama follows the life of Scarlett O'Hara, a vain and manipulative Southern belle who must learn to fend for herself through the devastation of the Civil War.

The play is scheduled to have its premiere at the Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre in Winnipeg. It is set to run Jan. 10 to Feb. 2.

In 2008, a musical adaptation of the novel directed by Trevor Nunn opened and closed quickly in London. Another stage version, called "Scarlett," debuted in the early '70s and had a run in Los Angeles at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion before a planned Broadway berth.

But under the weight of negative reviews, the show closed before making it to New York.

In a conversation posted on YouTube, Landau spoke about how she grew up reading the original novel. "I read it 10 or 11 times as a teenager," she said. The Toronto playwright also mentioned that she deliberately avoided rewatching the 1939 movie before writing the play.